POISONOUS CHEESE 63 



mental researches to the caseic and sebacic acids prepared 

 in the ordinary way. His views will probably be altered 

 and simplified if future experiments should confirm the 

 late inquiries of Braoonnot, who has stated that Proust's 

 caseic acid is a modification of acetic acid combined with 

 an acrid oil." 



In 1852 SciiLOSSBERUEB made experiments with the 

 pure fatty acids and demonstrated their freedom from poi- 

 sonous properties. These experiments have been verified 

 repeatedly, so that now it is well known that all the fatty 

 acids obtainable from cheese are devoid of poisonous 

 properties. 



It may be remarked here, that there is every probability 

 that the poisonous substance was present in the extracts 

 obtained by the older chemists. Indeed, we may say that 

 this is a certainty, since the administration of these extracts 

 to cats was, in some instances at least, followed by fatal 

 result. The great mass of these extracts consisted of fatty 

 acids, and as the chemists could find nothing else present, 

 they very naturally concluded that the fatty acids them- 

 selves constituted the poisonous substance. 



Since the overthrow of the fatty acid tlieory, various 

 conjectures have been made, but none worthy of considera- 

 tion. 



We make the following quotations from some of the best 

 authorities who wrote during the first half of the past 

 decade upon this subject : 



HiLLEB says : " Nothing definite is known of the nature 

 of cheese poison. Its solubility seems established from an 

 observation by Husemann, a case in which the poison was 

 transmitted from a nursing mother to her child." 



Husemann wrote as follows : " The older investigations 

 of the chemical nature of cheese poison, which led to the 

 belief of putrefactive cheese acids and other problematic 

 substances, are void of all trustworthiness, and the dis- 

 covery of the active principle of poisonous cheese may not 

 be looked for in the near future, on account of the proper 

 animals for controlling the experiments with the extracts, 



